Lidl Boiler

[youreds91]

Just fired mine up for HLT use, stat to the max, it cut off at 56°c.
Back in the box & back it goes.

[sladeywadey]

mine went back on Sunday - shame really as for the price and features it looked to be good..

[crafty john]

Just fired mine up for HLT use, stat to the max, it cut off at 56°c.
Back in the box & back it goes.

Mine reaches 96C and then cuts out, I emailed the manufacturers and they told me to write to them sending a copy of my receipt and they would send me a replacement and not to throw away the one I have as they may want it back

[JayM72]

Nearly bought one myself on Sunday as it seemed a good buy...decided against it as I don't really need one but at 40 quid it seemed a bargain!

[koomber]

Seems odd that so many people are having problems with the jam maker. A bit of a bugger too frankly as this, on the surface, looks ideal for a first time brewer.
I'm on holiday at the moment so haven't had a chance to fiter around with mine yet but I had one of the chaps at work test out their one and it got to abou 99C but would not go higher. His opinion is that it is not the element but the controller that is the problem. General concensus from himself is that a PID controller and a thermocouple should see it allright.

I have to say though, I'm a bit shocked by what CJ is saying. It looks as though they are meant to properly boil water, but they ALL seem to be borked. Did the manufacturer give any indications as to whether this should be able to boil water?

[crafty john]

No indications at all, it just says on the box 30C to 100C which is a bit hit and miss.

[strideredc]

my one boils but takes a bit of time to get there, its not a rolling boil but its enough to hot break. prob wont get all the AA's out of the hops but you could just add a few more?

i am temped to make a boiler and use this as a HLT? as although the gauge isn't accurate on the face of it, it certainly holds water around the right temp?

[youreds91]

I have to say though, I'm a bit shocked by what CJ is saying. It looks as though they are meant to properly boil water, but they ALL seem to be borked. Did the manufacturer give any indications as to whether this should be able to boil water?

I think the point we've all missed & the topic bears this out is that this is sold as a jam maker, not a boiler. You put your jars in a pool of water & it all gets steamed into jam (I read the book, was going to do a batch as my strawbs are nearly ready), you don't want a vigorous boil rattling the jars around. I think the cut off at almost 100°C is by design. If mine wasn't borked cutting off in the 50s I'd have kept it as an HLT.

Thank you to LIDL for a no nonsense refund.

[rimski]

I bought one of these and can't get it to do a rolling boil is there a way of adapting it to do rolling boil

[rimski]

I bought one of these and can't get it to do a rolling boil is there a way of adapting it to do rolling boil

Sorry I only read page 1 and posted my reply read the rest of the thread now so going to try and adapt as week type

[rimski]

Tried to twist the inner 45degrees but couldnt work out how.
Tried to leave the thermostat unattached from pot but still didn't work.

So as it stands I cannot get a rolling boil with mine atm

[rimski]

OK so after a little amount of fiddling I have managed to get the boiler to do a boil and stay boiling for at least 90 mins.
If you remove the thermocouple plate from the base of the pot, you will then see that there is a small tag protruding from the plate I lodged that into 1 of the slots in the bottom of the plastic base as far from the bottom of the pot as I could and then replaced everything.
The boil may not be super vigorous but it is a rolling boil all the same.
I will take some pictures and video tomorrows mash boil and post then

[Mogwyth]

I have to say though, I'm a bit shocked by what CJ is saying. It looks as though they are meant to properly boil water, but they ALL seem to be borked. Did the manufacturer give any indications as to whether this should be able to boil water?

I think the point we've all missed & the topic bears this out is that this is sold as a jam maker, not a boiler. You put your jars in a pool of water & it all gets steamed into jam (I read the book, was going to do a batch as my strawbs are nearly ready), you don't want a vigorous boil rattling the jars around. I think the cut off at almost 100°C is by design. If mine wasn't borked cutting off in the 50s I'd have kept it as an HLT.

Thank you to LIDL for a no nonsense refund.

So it's not even a proper jam maker for that you need a constant 105 degree boil, other wise the jam won't set.

[rimski]

Today I completed my first ever AG brew and have used the Lidl boiler to do the "BOIL" here is a video of the rolling boil that it is managing. It isn't as vigourous as I think it need to be but it should do the job.

THE BOIL

[koomber]

An encouraging video rimski! Thanks for posting that. It certainly looks like it will manage a rolling boil, whether this will be vigrous enough, maybe someone with more experience can comment...

Couple Questions for you:
What volume did you start the boil with?
What was the final volume after the boil?
Did you have any problems with boil over?
How long did it take to reach the boil from the mash temperature?

Thanks once again for posting the video!